Hand Hertilising Torrachilty Forest
The photograph is courtesy of the family of George Dey. George took many forestry photographs in his forestry career and many are now shown on this web site. Check under ‘Groups’ and George Dey Collection.
Three men from Torrachilty Forest hand spreading fertiliser onto young Lodgepole pine trees on single furrow ploughing. The unground rock phosphate (one source was phosphate rich rock in Morocco) usually arrived on lorries loaded with 25kg bags. The bags were loaded onto the muskeg and distributed around the forest to be fertilised usually left at the ends of plough furrows on rides. Where the plough furrows were long the distance each bag would cover was calculated and the muskeg would start crossing the furrows at that distance and fertiliser bags dropped off.
The men often loaded the full 25kg into the planting bag and set off down the planting row spreading a handful around each plant. In double furrow ploughing it was easy to cover two rows at one time. There was a lot of discussion on whether the fertiliser should be confined to just immediately around the tree or spread a little more widely on the surrounding area. It was heavy dusty job on windy days but could be part of the annual work programme which kept men gainfully employed over the summer months until the high manpower demands of the planting season started again.
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, George Dey Forestry Collection, Groups of people